ARCADIA – Noble Threewitt announced his retirement Thursday. When a reporter phoned his home to ask why, his wife laughed sweetly.

“Well,” Beryl Threewitt said, “he will be 96 in February.”

For anybody else, that explanation would suffice. But many of us thought that by having come this far, the dean of the nation’s thoroughbred trainers would keep working forever.

Threewitt, who was America’s youngest trainer when he saddled his first winner at Caliente racetrack in 1932 and its oldest when he saddled his latest winner in 2006, will retire officially on his birthday on Feb. 24. The announcement was made through the publicity department at Santa Anita, where Threewitt has been running horses since the track’s Christmas Day opening in 1934.

How many sportsmen are still competing a half-century after their greatest moments? But it soon will be 53 years since the Illinois native trained Correlation to win the Wood Memorial and Florida Derby before the colt finished sixth as the favorite in the Kentucky Derby and second in the Preakness.

For the past decade, Threewitt was a hero just for continuing to show up at his Santa Anita barn every day. If “show up” isn’t too soft a phrase for what he did, which until very recently was to get to work at 4 a.m.

“It’s just something that gets in your blood,” Threewitt said one morning a few years ago.

He hadn’t won a Southern California training title since 1961, when he led the Hollywood Park summer meet in wins. But he never stopped winning, including stakes-level successes with Old Topper and Theresa’s Tizzy at the end of the `90s.

Threewitt currently trains three horses. A 4-year-old gelding named Threeatonce, owned by Threewitt’s grandson, is scheduled to run for a $12,500 claiming price in Saturday’s opening race.

Threewitt didn’t come to the phone at his home near Santa Anita late Thursday afternoon.

Beryl, his wife of 73 years, said he doesn’t hear well enough.

Concerned for his eyesight, friends and family persuaded him it’s time to retire. Said Beryl: “It makes it hard to see what his horses are doing.”

Recently, Threewitt was forced to stop getting to the track at 4 a.m. and start arriving at the lazy hour of 5a.m. It’s an accommodation to the people driving him to work.

So what will a 96-year-old who’s spent his life at the track do in retirement? He’ll go to the track, Beryl promised, and remain active at the Santa Anita stable-area health center that bears his name.

“He’ll go to the clinic (every day),” Beryl said. “Just not at 5 o’clock. They don’t open that early.”

Better than six: The popularity of pick-six carryovers was demonstrated again Wednesday at Santa Anita when, after two days without a perfect ticket, the pool swelled to more than $2.7 million. With so many fans chasing a big payoff (111 perfect tickets were each worth $18,992), total handle on the eight-race card topped $11.3 million, an increase over last week’s most comparable day of 41 percent.

Thus we’re mystified by something a Breeders’ Cup executive said after the announcement Monday that the event will become a two-day festival Oct. 26-27 at Monmouth Park in New Jersey with the addition of $1 million races for dirt-track milers, distaff sprinters and 2-year-old turfers. Simulcast consultant Ken Kirchner told the Daily Racing Form he wants more feedback before deciding if the Friday pick-six should have a mandatory payout, putting money in more players’ hands for Saturday, or the possibility of a carryover, building jackpot potential for the big day.

Here’s some feedback: The carryover is the clear, obvious, no-brainer choice here.

Do you ever get the idea that racing promoters don’t play their own game? On Santa Anita’s “Bet a little, win a lot” TV ads, a bettor is shown punching out a pick-six ticket in $100 combinations – instead of the $2 combinations used by, let’s see, everybody.

The weekend: Saturday’s $150,000 San Rafael Stakes won’t be the spectator event it was a year ago when Brother Derek beat Stevie Wonderboy – but the season’s first graded stakes for 3-year-olds might be a better betting race.

It’s a battle of up-and-comers including Silent Soul and Notional, fifth and sixth in the Hollywood Futurity; Half Famous, winner of a $50,000 stakes in Arizona, and Tap It Light, second in a California-breds stakes at Santa Anita.

Notional tries again to run back to his swift debut victory in October at Santa Anita.

Last year, San Rafael winner Brother Derek went on to win the Santa Anita Derby, before his fourth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby touched off a six-race losing streak the colt will try to end Saturday in the $200,000 San Fernando Stakes for 4-year-olds.

The California Horse Racing Board’s medication committee has recommended tougher penalties for equine drug violations, tighter restrictions on the use of clenbuterol, and consideration of a ban on anabolic steroids for horses.

The first two measures could be considered at the full board’s monthly meeting Jan. 23 at Arcadia City Hall.

Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said he plans to send either Invasor or Jazil to the $6 million Dubai World Cup on March 31 after major races at Gulfstream Park. Invasor is aiming for the Feb. 3 Donn Handicap, his first race since winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic, and Jazil is pointing for the March 3 Gulfstream Park Handicap, having run second at the allowance level at Aqueduct last week in his first start since winning the Belmont.

Barbaro is “coming back” again after the scare earlier this week, one of his owners told the Associated Press on Thursday. Gretchen Jackson, who owns Barbaro with her husband Roy, said the Kentucky Derby winner is “comfortable” and has shown no further complications after problems with his laminitis-ridden left hind foot necessitated the removal of damaged tissue Tuesday.

No resolution yet in the investigation of Gus Headley’s claim of a horse from his father Bruce Dec.28 at Santa Anita, which raised suspicions of collusion. But the CHRB has ordered Gus to move his horses to a different barn in the interest of appearances.

The gimmick Santa Anita started Wednesday called “ShowVivor” challenges fans to pick one horse each day to finish first, second or third. Details are at santaanita.com.